Biography

Early life and career

Khaled was born in New Orleans, Louisiana to Palestinian parents[1][2][3] and currently resides in Sunny Isles, Florida.[4] Currently, he hosts the weeknight program TakeOver on Miami-based urban music radio station WEDR with fellow host K. Foxx; Khaled states that he has worked for the station professionally since 2003. Early in his career, he DJed for a south Florida regional station Power 96.5 FM.[2] In 1998, Khaled worked as a DJ for M Luther Campbell for Campbell's Friday night WEDR radio show The Luke Show.[5]

2008–10: We Global and Victory

In 2008, Khaled's third album We Global came out with singles "Out Here Grindin" with Akon, Rick Ross, Lil' Boosie, Trick Daddy, Ace Hood, and Plies, followed by "Go Hard" featuring Kanye West and T-Pain. RIAA certified the single "I'm So Hood" Platinum on June 4, 2008.[8] That year, Khaled won DJ of the Year awards from the BET Hip Hop Awards and Ozone Awards.[10][11]

2013: Suffering from Success

In January 2013, DJ Khaled announced that he had already started working on his seventh album and that it will be titled Suffering from Success. After going to a doctor due to a bald spot on his beard the doctor told him he was "suffering from success" which inspired the album title.

The first single from the album is titled, "No New Friends" and features Drake, Lil Wayne and Rick Ross, along with production coming from Boi-1da and Noah "40" Shebib.[23] On April 14, 2013 DJ Khaled released a promotional video for Suffering for Success and the first single "No New Friends".[24] The single was then premiered the following day and released to iTunes of April 19, 2013.[25][26] "No New Friends" has since debuted at #55 on the Billboard Hot 100. On June 10, 2013, it was announced that Suffering from Success would be released on September 24, 2013.[27]

On July 25, 2013, Khaled publicly "proposed" to fellow Cash Money artist Nicki Minaj via MTV. He supported his offer with a 10 karat diamond ring from Rafaello & Co., valued at about $500,000.[28] Later, he reaffirmed his proposal in an interview with Power 106's DJ Felli Fel, stating: "I ain't a young boy no more. I'm on my thinking the future. I just had to be honest. I always liked her. She's my friend, of course. And I like her. It's more than a crush."[29] On July 29, 2013, in an interview with Funkmaster Flex, Minaj denied Khaled's proposal, saying: "Khaled is my brother and Khaled was not serious with that damn proposal, ya'll. Please let it go. He was kidding."[30] The same day, Flex premiered Khaled's new single, titled "I Wanna Be with You" which featured Minaj, as well as frequent collaborators Future and Rick Ross. This lead some to believe that his proposal was a "publicity stunt" to promote his new single.[31][32]

2014–present: I Changed Alot

On April 28, 2014, DJ Khaled announced in an interview with MTV that Jay-Z will be featured on his new single. The interview was noted due to Khaled "cursing, gesturing, and tossing the microphone to the floor in an effort to convey the importance and impact of the music he has coming this summer."[33] Few hours after that, he released the single called "They Don't Love You No More", also featuring frequent collaborators Rick Ross, Meek Mill and French Montana. The song will be on his eight studio album titled I Changed Alot, which is set for a 2015 release.[34][35] Then the following day, "They Don't Love You No More" was serviced to mainstream urban radio in the United States.[36]

On July 1, 2014, Khaled announced that he has partnered with Danish audio company Bang & Olufsen to launch his own brand of headphones, titled "We the Best Sound".[37] The brand is advertised in the video "They Don't Love You No More."

Recurring collaborators

This chart lists every artist who has appeared in at least 3 different albums by DJ Khaled (including bonus tracks and remixes). His most frequent collaborator is Rick Ross, who has appeared on 26 songs, among all seven of Khaled's albums.[39] The only other artists to appear on every album is Birdman and Lil Wayne, while Plies has appeared on six out of the seven.